American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine Calls the Government to Adopt National Waste Management Strategy

Following the consideration of the National Waste Management Strategy at the Government Committee last week, business community expects its adoption at the upcoming meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

3 Ministries together with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) have been working on the Strategy during the last 1,5 years. Experts of the Chamber Member Companies were actively engaged in the process of providing expert opinions and comments based on the best international practices via Position Papers and meetings, for example:

on March 2, we met with Ostap Semerak, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine to discuss key pillars of the Strategy;

on July 18, we held a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine during which a more detailed structure of the Strategy was presented;

on August 2, we met with Maxym Nefyodov, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine to discuss position and current ‘eco’ initiatives of the business community.

Responsible business community supports adoption of the Strategy as its pillars contain basic principles of waste hierarchy, namely – polluter pays and EPR principles, municipal cooperation, separate waste collection, closing of non-complaint landfills. We do believe that adoption of this Strategy is crucial for the future development of ecologically safe Ukraine as well as fulfillment of Ukrainian international obligations.